Chasing dinosaurs in Myanmar's conflict-ridden north

Danai Kachin-"Amber hunters" on a quest for a Jurassic Park-style discovery of dinosaur remains sift through mounds of the precious resin in Myanmar - a lucrative trade that captivates palaeontologists but also fuels a decades-long conflict in the far north.

The morning amber market on the outskirts of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, throngs with traders using torches and magnifying glasses to scrutinise pieces of the honey-coloured fossilised tree sap.

The trading takes place just a few dozen kilometres from the fighting between Myanmar's army and ethnic Kachin rebels battling for autonomy, land, identity - and natural resources that help finance both sides.

The jade and ruby industries dwarf the largely artisanal amber trade, but the resin can still fetch big sums for whoever controls the mines.

Amber, historically coveted as jewellery by nobility from China to ancient Greece, enjoyed a revival in popular culture thanks to the 1990s hit movie "Jurassic Park", set in a theme park where dinosaurs have been cloned by extracting DNA from mosquitos preserved in the resin.

However, most amber heralds not from the Jurassic but from the later Cretaceous Period, up to 100 million years ago.

The best preserved "inclusions" offer today's scientists and collectors a three-dimensional fossil, with some creatures even frozen mid-movement.

There are amber deposits found all over the world but, for palaeontology, the mines of Kachin are "irreplaceable", explains 36-year-old Lida Xing from the China University of Geosciences in Beijing.

"We almost could not reach the mining area because it was very dangerous," Lida Xing says of his 2015 trip. "We sneaked in when the situation eased quite a lot, but no scientist was able to go inside after that."

"This is a severe problem because, for palaeontology, you obtain a lot of useful information from the geological conditions and strata -— but we were not able to do this."

Amber, jade, timber and gold are also "major drivers" of the conflict in northern Myanmar, says Hanna Hindstrom from monitoring group Global Witness.

Without sourcing responsibly, any company trading Myanmar amber "could be causing or contributing to a range of harms including conflict and human rights abuses", she adds.